Øya: Day Four

Today’s events kicked off a little soggy. The rain was INSANE but I was not going to miss Girls. Christopher Owens, sporting his new rockabilly hair, took to the stage with his band to perform a miraculously uplifting set despite the torrential rain twacking our waterproofs. His Costello inspired croon and rock ‘n’ roll even managed to bring out the sun for the rest of the day. Such a glorious band.

Sadly all credibility was lost when I gave into my incessant urges and watched South Africa’s Die Antwoord at the Klubben tent. And what a sight it was to behold. Mainly singing about having sex with mums, having sex with girls on their periods and…no wait that’s it, I watched in morbid curiosity whilst that small little child woman thrusted across the stage whilst Ninja got fairly aggressive with his weirdly exhilarating hip hop. The set also included some pornography on the screens to tide any nymphos over during the set.

To try and clean my ears out I watched a short bit of Field Music’s set but it wasn’t shaking the overwhelming feeling that I’d just like to be in my hotel watching Die Antwoord videos. The Flaming Lips luckily stepped in and made my ruddy day. En route to the stage we also got stopped by somebody working there and got told to walk a different route as they had found a nest of bees and didn’t want us to get stung. How marvellously considerate. Wayne Coyne, who we’d spent much time semi-stalking throughout the festival already, came on stage in his bubble, and all of the confetti, gaggle of dancers at the side (word got out that we might be able to blag some passes to be one of these lucky Lips’ dancers but a group of competition winners went and snaffled up the places) exploded to make a truley triumphant show. Somehow I’ve managed to avoid seeing Flaming Lips throughout my life so it was so great to watch this live show I’d heard so much about. ‘Do You Realize’ nearly made me cry and ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ sounded as good as the day it had been writen. What an awesome way to kick off the evening.

Headliners for this night were either The Specials or Robyn. It turns out a LOT of Norwegians like Robyn, I’d say she brought in the biggest crowd so far this festival. I however, am not a massive fan of the albino elf and trotted off to see The Specials. I’ve managed to see them live before since they’ve reformed but tonight felt a little dry and tired. They didn’t seem to get that into it as a band, although Terry Hall is still incredibly slick as a frontman. As predictable as this is, they didn’t play ‘Ghost Town’ and it kind of bummed me out a bit. It was a little disappointing but it didn’t matter, I had a rather wonderful day.